By David Stevens: Editor for Freedom New Mexico I asked Facebook friends for stories about the best cats they’ve ever owned.Pep’s Betty Williamson offered the tale of “Fizz Bomb,” named after a “Western Horseman” cartoon character:“Fizz ruled our roost for many years and is remembered for fishing from our aquarium and hitchhiking between our house […]

PNT staff report The Portales News-Tribune garnered two second-place awards at the Panhandle Press Association conference in Canadian, Texas, this past Thursday through Saturday. The paper took second in the Feature Stories and Front Page Layout contests for Division II. For the Feature Stories, “Photos chronicle lasting friendship” and “Group fights to save, relocate prairie […]

By Don McAlavy: Freedom columnist If you don’t know where Oklahoma Lane is, then you’re a newcomer! Yes, that’s right, if you don’t know where Oklahoma Lane is, then you’re a newcomer. Located about six miles east of Farwell, this farming community has generated some “hard to believe, but true” tales. Here are a few […]

I never knew Glen Hubbard Stevens. My granddad’s little brother died 15 years before I was born. A newspaper obituary reports Sgt. Stevens was killed in action on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and that’s what’s inspired me to learn more about him. A real hero among us Stevens’? Imagine that. Records show my great uncle […]

I never knew Glen Hubbard Stevens. My granddad’s little brother died 15 years before I was born. A newspaper obituary reports Sgt. Stevens, a paratrooper, was killed in action on D-Day, June 6, 1944. That’s what’s inspired me to learn more about him this year, the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II. […]

By David Stevens: Freedom New Mexico Editor Dear reader, The type is larger and easier to read. The stories are shorter and more personal. We’re trying to generate more local photos, increase the number of local voices, allow for more interaction. This what you had in mind? These are some of the things we heard […]

Good morning. It’s Freedom New Mexico’s Friday briefing. Weather Right off the top today because of the storm: Winter Storm Warning in effect until 11 a.m. Today — Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming partly cloudy. Patchy fog in the morning. Slight chance of snow showers. Highs in the lower to mid 30s. Northwest […]

By Kevin Wilson: PNT columnist Here are some stories that are either funny because they’re scary, or they would be funny if they weren’t scary. I’m not really sure. • I saw the greatest, and worst, headline in the history of the New York Knicks about two weeks ago after a loss to the Oklahoma […]

Biggest critics have hands held out Several recent stories in the paper highlighted the fact that Clovis and Portales have not been hit nearly as hard by the recession as most of the rest of the country. But there has been little discussion as to why. There are two main reasons. 1. We have a […]

By Glenda Price: FNM columnist Have you noticed all the newspaper supplements and magazines suddenly printing stories about “saving money,” and coining new words like “staycation” for not traveling someplace for a vacation? I notice they’re using words like “savings” and “spend less.” I wonder what happened to “spend nothing.” After all, if you don’t […]

By Argen Duncan and Clarence Plank The past year brought achievements, tragedy and changes for Roosevelt County. Below, the Portales News-Tribune takes a look back over 2008. January • Cannon Air Force Base received a delivery of C-130s as part of its transition to a Special Operations Base. • A grass fire burned more than […]

By Gabriel Monte: Freedom New Mexico The Cannon Public Affairs department has gone from just producing written stories and photographs to broadcasting video stories on the Commanders Channel in the last year. The multimedia department combined with the public affairs desk and grew from a staff of four people to 20 people, according to Public […]

By Gabriel Monte, Cannon Connections The Cannon Public Affairs department is has gone from just producing written stories and photographs to broadcasting video stories on the Commanders Channel in the last year. The multimedia department combined with the public affairs desk and grew from a staff of four people to 20 people, according to Public […]

By Helena Rodriguez: Freedom Newspapers A popular piece of advice for writers is to write about what you know. But writing about what you know can be extremely painful when you’ve been affected by the destructive demon of methamphetamine . Crank. Ice. Chalk. Tweek. Nose candy. There are many ways to label this man-made drug, […]

By Karl Terry: PNT Managing Editor While Portales people knew him as “Jack,” the Eastern New Mexico University professor and all-around nice guy, Jack Williamson cast a large shadow in the science fiction community. Terms and even ideas adopted by science or Hollywood often had their roots in science fiction. Williamson coined or made popular […]

By Karl Terry: PNT Managing Editor Ghost stories, good ghost stories with actual historical characters, are hard to come by and even harder for some of us to remember. I never had a really good one until a few years ago. But the following ghost tale really happened one blustery fall near a historic gravesite. […]

By Ezra Paul Mann: ENMU Communication Services Some of the best stories come about when they are left to write themselves, according to Stephen King, one of the most successful horror writers of all time. Antony Oldknow, professor of English at Eastern New Mexico University, has the same belief. He hopes that the method will […]

By Tony Parra: PNT Staff Writer The deadline to submit stories or photos for an Elida Centennial Book is June 1. The book is scheduled to be released in June 2007. Elida was incorporated July 3, 1907. Shirley Cater of Elida said she spoke with former and current Elida residents during the Elida all-school reunion […]